AUDIO: To become a building surveyor; I don’t think anyone knows at eighteen that that’s what they want to do. It’s not a job that you know about and it’s not a job that’s so advertised that you just want to be drawn to it. You sort of fall in it by default.

VIDEO: Marie Delaney walking through a building site.

AUDIO: My dad was a builder so I’ve always lived with gumboots on. I’ve always seen him do and be passionate about constructing something to the end. And the fact that I wanted to be an architect, that I was always good at drawing sort of made me understand that I knew enough about the building industry to know how it all worked.

VIDEO: Marie Delaney sitting in her office.

AUDIO: My life has been the one where you don’t know … you don’t quite know what you’re really going to do when you grow up. Now I’m nearly forty and I believe I’ve finally found what I’m doing now.

VIDEO: Marie Delaney checking progress on the building site.

AUDIO: So, it’ll take a few more years to get there but I think I’m just starting and I can see twenty years still ahead of me of doing this business.

VIDEO: Marie Delaney checking building plans in her office.

AUDIO: As a small building surveyor, the thing we love about the job is that you actually end up doing the inspections yourself. And because you’ve seen that project from paper to the end final project it becomes a reality.

VIDEO: Marie Delaney checking progress on the building site.

AUDIO: It’s like you’ve built the thing itself.

VIDEO: Marie Delaney sitting in her office.

AUDIO: One of the biggest skills is the communication. You’ve got to deal with a lot of different disciplines. You’ve got your engineering, you’ve got your draftsman, you’ve got your builders, you’ve got the trades under the builders.

VIDEO: Marie Delaney checking foundations on a building site.

AUDIO: Traditionally you’ll only see a man on site but as time has gone forth we’re seeing more tradespeople that are women. The same goes for building surveyors. We’re probably one in ten maybe. So, we are regarded with a lot of respect.

VIDEO: Marie Delaney sitting in her office.

AUDIO: We see so much red tape in today’s society that to actually know that we’re part of that red tape but we actually are able to complete to the end of it and cut the red tape and say, ‘That’s it, we’ve dealt with it, it’s finished’, you enjoy it. That’s what excites me.